School Counselors: Our Time and Services are Valuable!

When I first began my school counseling career, I quickly found myself at the mercy of everyone and their needs/schedule - from the administration, to the teachers/staff, to the parents, to the students, to community agencies, etc. A phone call came in or I heard a page over the school intercom and off I went to address the issue. While I certainly felt I was helping those in need , I didn't always feel that my time as a school counselor was being valued. We didn't have a comprehensive school counseling program at the time and I felt I was letting others decide for me what was important for a school counselor to be doing each day.

I began to feel even more conflicted, when I had to abruptly end a small group session, individual session, or a classroom guidance lesson to take a parent phone call, to meet with a parent who stopped into school, to meet with an agency professional who popped in, or to address someone else's definition of a crisis situation. I was not meeting the needs of all students in the school, I was letting students down, and my time wasn't being used as wisely as possible. I sometimes felt that I was giving others the impression that all I did was sit around all day waiting for the next phone call, meeting, page, or issue to pop-up. I felt I was giving the impression to others that the school counselor wasn't busy, so she's available to address any situation. I was sending the incorrect message that my time, and the work I was doing with students and staff, was not valuable.

So, with a few years of experience (way back then:), I began to feel more comfortable with how to schedule many of my services, how to triage the crises, and how to manage the phone calls/pop-ins from others. After searching for a system of scheduling/time management that would work for me -- from index cards, to logs on a clipboard, to monthly calendars, to small appointment books, to computer data sheets/logs -- about 12 years ago, I came across this appointment book. I found one summer during the special Teacher's Back to School Breakfast at Staples. I've been using one ever since!

This is the At-A-Glance Academic weekly version which runs from July 25 to September 1.

The inside of the book looks like this.

In the front of the book, there is a page with small yearly calendars. In the back, there is a page of important dates /holidays for the current year and 3 future years, a page indicating U.S.A. time zones and area codes, as well as, pages to list important names, addresses, and phone numbers.



I like this book because:

1. It runs from July to July
2. An entire week is shown when the book is opened
3. I can write in my scheduled responsibilities at the scheduled time (classroom lessons, small groups, lunch sessions, individual sessions, meetings, etc.). See example to the right.
4. I can write in the unscheduled responsibilities that pop-up during the day at the time they occurred 
5. I can keep track of the amount of time that was devoted to each responsibility, activity, meeting, etc. by drawing a a little line or arrow (see example).
6. If a scheduled responsibility was cancelled, then I keep it in the book and put a line through it
7. I can go back and collect data later on
8. There is enough space to write on each line
9. I like that the day is divided into 15 minute increments
10. The book easily fits in my school bag and is easy to carry to meetings
11. Because of the size of the book, a paper sheet can easily fit between the pages without having to fold it
12. Post-it Notes (which I should buy stock in) stick nicely on the pages

I wish the book:

1. Came in fun colors or patterns other than black
2. Had a pocket on the inside cover

Whatever the system, find one that works best for you. Your time and the services you provide are extremely valuable!!